A bug was found in the way zgrep processes file names. If a user can be tricked into running zgrep on a file with a carefully crafted file name, arbitrary commands could be executed as the user running zgrep. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2005-0758 to this issue.

A bug was found in the way gunzip modifies permissions of files being decompressed. A local attacker with write permissions in the directory in which a victim is decompressing a file could remove the file being written and replace it with a hard link to a different file owned by the victim. gunzip then gives the linked file the permissions of the uncompressed file. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2005-0988 to this issue.

A directory traversal bug was found in the way gunzip processes the -N flag. If a victim decompresses a file with the -N flag, gunzip fails to sanitize the path which could result in a file owned by the victim being overwritten. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2005-1228 to this issue.

Users of gzip should upgrade to this updated package, which contains backported patches to correct these issues.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run:

rpm -Fvh [filenames]

where [filenames] is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directory *only* contains the desired RPMs.

Please note that this update is also available via Red Hat Network. Many people find this an easier way to apply updates. To use Red Hat Network, launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:

up2date

This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate RPMs being upgraded on your system.